Postby cynic » Mon May 20, 2013 9:57 pm
(I posted a similar post to this on a different thread where someone had claimed Wandsworth did not think a GPA would be possible)
1) You may recall the kerfuffle over the Forthbridge Rd/Meteor St site for Belleville which led to a second consultation in 2010. The council proposal in this was a complicated Geographical Priority Area (GPA) set-up.
Now the actual details of the proposed GPAs were over-complicated & flawed (what a surprise), hence why within all 3 "groupings" many people involved ended up voting against it. (This allowed Wandsworth to claim they had "tried to solve the problem", but people didn't want that solution...sigh)...blah blah
However my point is:
It is very clear that a GPA type set-up would be in fact permitted under the Admissions Code, as Wandsworth would not have suggested it previously otherwise! (I am very familiar with the Code also)
The straightforward thing to do is to set a GPA around a school that is a significantly larger in size that the recent admission distance (As an example only say it's ~1500m, vs a current admission distance of say a few hundred meters)
Then only if you live within that GPA do your siblings get priority, that's quite simple. Non-sibling applicants within the GPA also get priority, order worked out on distance as per before. (In fact though as the GPA is much larger than typical admissions there's never really an issue about giving non-siblings priority within the GPA as the distances are always less than GPA).
This system could reduce BOTH "out of area" sibling admission (which is a at least a big factor as short-term renters*) AND to some extent short-term renters.
If you like, one could describe the GPA as the expected local community area of the school - as it would be quite large, it would enable families to move properties within it so they would not be as restricted as the Council reply claims
Obviously actually defining a GPA will be complicated, especially if there are several schools close together but it can be done.
GPAs have been successfully defined in Wandsworth* and in other areas of the country*
It doesn't have to be a distance but can be defined by streets, railway lines etc (very similar to an old-fashioned catchment area)
2) Sibling admission is a key part of this whole thing but people REALLY don't like to even talk about this.
Of course everyone supports the idea of siblings getting priority admission BUT IMHO you have to be able to draw a distinction between those who have moved but still live within the local community and those who have completely moved away, let's call them "out of area" siblings*
I would ask is there any real difference between:
a) a family who rent for 6-12months in the local area to gain access to a school but then return to their far-away original home
b) a family who get one sibling-in and then move far-away (for whatever reason) but are still sending that child and other siblings to the original school
You could say that neither family has particularly committed to the local community, (not on a timescale compared to the 7-years-plus of schooling they are expecting to receive)
If a family move properly away then IMHO their kids should move school -
a) it's not that disruptive for primary school children to move schools,
b) let's face it they don't actually live that close to their friends any more,
c) the long school run must be quite a pain.
Some may not like the idea because they worked so hard to get their first child into a school and they don't want to "do it all over again", but IMHO this is arguably fairer than other people being denied even a chance of a place at their genuinely local schools.
3) In the interest of sharing info:
Other posts have been pointed out that BV governors have previously defended the sibling policy against any GPA idea. This is true, BV has (had?) a large number of vacancies in later years, which BV are understandbly keen to fill to ensure full funding. BV Governors stated:
(i) these children are often from "further afield" and significantly
improve the diversity of the school AND
(ii) If any change to the sibling rule was made this would deter such
families from taking these in-year vacancies for fear of not getting any younger siblings into the same school
The numbers are (were, at least) quite large: e.g I believe it was stated that in Sep2010 BV filled 30 "in-year" vacancies (many of these I understand are in Y5 and Y6 - yes, the private school drain)
I am not aware that any evidence of say the "diversity improvement" was presented (e.g would that even correlate to free school meal uptake?) or of the current numbers for 2013
4) Given both BV and HW are now both in-effect in charge of their own admission policy this means any changes would need to be led by the largest consituency group - i.e. the current parents of those schools.
I'm sure most parents like the idea that their children's classmates/friends would all live in the same local neighbourhood, but despite this it's pretty hard to see any current parent voting/campaigning for any GPA type proposal which they may see as a "restriction"
